This term has a very different meaning among the Southern black folk that I grew up with. The living room was rather ironically named, because very little of life actually occurred there. The living room was an area which contained the nicest furniture, and the nicest decorations and flooring. It was also the place children were forbidden to enter. Many families kept plastic on the furniture in the living room, and reserved the room for basically two classes of people: preachers and white folk. Back in the day, white guests were rare, and blacks at the time frequently went to a lot of trouble to show them that they were cultured and prosperous. This room is something of an anachronism among modern blacks. You aren't likely to see it in the home of anyone under 50 years old due to the much more casual lifestyles we enjoy today.